Swype, the fast custom keyboard for Androids now has another update. Apart from your typical fast predictive input from a single motion on a screen, Swype now has several new gesture based features.

Now you can perform advanced actions such as copy, paste, cut and select all on Swype. Just Swype from the Swype Icon to either C (Copy), V (Paste) or X (Cut). To Select all, just swype from Swype Icon to A. There are other shortcuts as well, like Swyping from the icon to TW for Twitter or to GM for Google Maps.

For the majority that uses custom words or uncommon short forms, Swype now has a Personal Dictionary section where you can input and remove new words easily. This is pretty useful especially when getting rid of unwanted added new words.

To download, head to Swype Beta page here. Note: The new beta won’t work with devices that already have Swype pre-installed.

	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS
	Android Keyboard, Swype, Swype 3.0, Swype Beta, Swype Beta 3.25, Swype update

UPDATE: It is now available for download at Swype. We installed ours this afternoon.

Our favourite keyboard Swype, is a must download for every Android device that we use. It offers typing with just a single stroke movement across the keyboard with a single finger, making it the fastest way to type long text and sms while on the go.

Although it works great on small handheld smart phones, we can’t say the same for tablet usage. We had tried Swype or equivalent style of inputs on the Galaxy Tab, HTC Flyer and ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, and we felt the usability of it gets less practical due to its larger screen and it gets worse when you’re on landscape mode. We have always wondered, what’s the point of having full width swyping keyboard for tablets when they can just maintain a small one for shorter distance of swyping. Now it seems that Swype has finally solved that with the upcoming Swype 3.0 which is slated to kick start its Beta anytime soon.

On Swype 3.0, they have optimised their keyboard for Android 3.X Honeycomb tablets, which offers both full width and a smaller sized keyboard which would go easy on the fingers. To add more flexibility, the mini-sized swype keyboard is movable to either left, centre or right side of the screen. For the full QWERTY keyboard typist, there’s also a predictive tap feature which automatically detects your typing pattern and corrects them immediately.

Right now the Beta download page is not available but you can check this link later of the day.

Check out the demo video after the jump.

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	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS
	Android Keyboard, Honeycomb, Swype, Swype 3.0, Swype Beta, Swype for Honeycomb

The beauty of Android platform is the open possibilities of reinventing the keyboard. We have swype which arguably is the best keyboard when it comes to speed. Sometimes speed isn’t really everything and that’s where SwiftKey comes into the picture.

For those who are new to SwiftKey, their approach is focused more on predictive input. In the previous release, we loved how it learns your typing patterns and predicts your most likely next word the moment you type in the first character. In an ideal situations, you’ll only be typing the first character of every single word instead of typing everything out.

In the current release, SwiftKey is bringing text input to the next level. Now it gets more personalised by learning your input patterns via Facebook, Twitter and even Gmail. From this data, SwiftKey understands your language pattern as well as frequently used words including short forms that doesn’t normally make sense with proper dictionaries. Of course for those who are paranoid about privacy, this is just an optional feature which can be turned off.

Next they also refined the input by offering 2 typing modes – Precise typer and Rapid typer for the sloppy types. We’ve just tried it and we are pretty impressed by it. Admittedly it isn’t as fast as swype if you’re in a hurry but the text prediction is simply impressive.

To give it a try, you can download the SwiftKey X Beta from the market by clicking here and it is available for Android 1.6 and above.

Head after the break for the demo video.

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	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS
	Android, Android Keyboard, SwiftKey, Swiftkey X, Swiftkey X Beta

Swype our favourite speed typing keyboard for android has just released another new update. This time around they re-open beta registration for first time users. Earlier on it was a time-limited beta which early adopters are able to sign up to receive Swype beta updates. New registrations were no longer accepted until now.

In this new update, they have added a host of new features such as support for English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, French and an early but unstable preview release of Chinese Pinyin. Other neat features include double-tap-to-edit, cursor restore, voice to text and support for HVGA, WVGA and WVGA854. Unfortunately QVGA displays like the HTC Wildfire is still not supported.

To sign up, head to Swype Beta page here. Note that this is not applicable for phones that comes with Swype pre-installed, like the Samsung Galaxy S.

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	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS
	Android, Android Keyboard, Keyboard, Swype, Swype Beta, Swype Beta for Android

The Android platform offers a variety of keyboards. While most of them are auto corrective, predictive and gesture based like Swype and Swiftkey, they still revolve around the traditional QWERTY keyboard that was designed for full sized computers.

Now there’s a new keyboard called 8pen which is a redesigned keyboard that’s meant for devices with small screen. It basically has a centre region with 4 sectors in an X layout with keys spread on each side. The layout is designed with common used characters placed closer to the centre while the least used are spread towards the outer area. It looks like a neat concept which they say would reduce typos greatly and possibly offer the best blind typing experience.

It will be made available today on 8pen but it is only for Android 2.2 Froyo. Android 1.6+ support will be coming later.

Check out the demo video after the jump

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	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS
	8pen, Android, Android Input, Android Keyboard

Who or what is BlindType, we hear you ask?

The bane of touchscreens is that you have to keep your eyes on the screen most of the time to be able to punch words onto the screen. You’ll have to be fairly accurate with your fingers as well to get the keyboard to register your input on the right letters. For the touchscreen novice, typing on a touchscreen takes some getting used to.

BlindType promises to change all that with an almost psychic AI that learns and predicts with amazing accuracy the words you want to key in even when the letters that you’ve just touched are completely wrong.

From the demo videos, it looks like BlindType could be a godsend for typing on touchscreens and the big news is that Google has acquired the startup. This could very possibly mean that Google could introduce and official keyboard for Android devices that incorporate BlindType’s technology. If that’s indeed the case, then we can’t wait to give it a try and compare BlindType with our favourite touchscreen keyboard at the moment, Swype.

Had on after the jump see the demo videos on how BlindType works.

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	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS
	Android, Android Keyboard, BlindType, google, touch typing, touchscreen, touchscreen keyboard

Swype beta for Android is expirying soon. If you didn’t get Swype pre-installed on your device you would need to update to continue using it. According to Android Central,
there are a couple of bug fixes and enhancements for this Swype update.

Among the changes are support for German and Portuguese language, added disable auto-space gesture by swyping from spacebar to backspace, quick language change, improved word prediction and gestures.

This is strictly for existing Swype Beta users as they are not accepting new sign ups currently. You must also uninstall both Swype and SwypeInstaller before proceeding. Those with Swype pre-installed like the Samsung Galaxy S are advised not to download.

Download Swype Installer here via your Android browser. For detail step by step installation, click here.

For those who didn’t know, Swype is also available for Nokia touch screen phones too.

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	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS
	Android, Android Keyboard, Keyboard, Swype, Swype Beta, Swype Beta for Android, Update

If you’re using an Android device, you probably have several keyboards installed. Swype & SwiftKey are 2 recommended keyboards to use for your device. However how do you switch between keyboards? If you’ve been going to settings to do that, there’s actually an easier way to do it.

AndroidCentral has posted a simple guide on changing keyboards on the fly.

Check out the video after the jump
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	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS, Video
	Android, Android Keyboard, Keyboard, Tip, Video

There’s a new keyboard for Android called SwiftKey Beta which is now downloadable from the market. While other keyboard predicts the current word you’re typing, Swiftkey is a step ahead by predicting the next word that you might type. This predictive feature is based on what you’ve typed on your device, be it email and SMS. So it kind of gets smarter as you type along.

We’ve just downloaded it and first impression is that it uses less effort than swype but it is slower. However the ease of use can come pretty handy when your hands are occupied like driving situation. That said, we do not condone texting while driving.

Check out the demo video after the jump

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	Android, Mobile Apps, Mobile OS
	Android, Android Input, Android Keyboard, SwiftKey